Some New Xmas Treats

Just a quick post to let you know I have been working on some Christmas themed soft toys for the coming holiday Season.

The first set of reindeer monster Christmas tree decorations are now listed in the shop, so click HERE or on the Shop tab above to check them out.

Shop is Stocked

I just stocked up the shop, check it out here

Shop and Site updated

Hey! you may have noticed the layout of the site has changed a bit. You can now find links on the header of this page to my shop and a gallery.

The shop has also moved from Etsy to Folksy as it is much easier being based in the UK to deal in pounds sterling. I will still ship internationally though so go check it out.  Just click ’shop’ above and it will show you the link.

An Inspiration!

I love it when you sit down with a few things in front of you, and after just a few moments and no real thinking at all ,you start to create something fabulous. This is my favourite kind of inspiration, and it happened to me this week. I went off to my local haberdashery the other day and there was a bundle of lace for 40p, I thought, well, I might as well have some of that. I got it out the bag the other day and looked at it, the next thing I know I had created these two lovely little creatures. I call them Owlbeasts, nothing like the ones in wow mind, but the name fits them nicely, Sarah, I think you might like these!

I think they are so cute, and they are perfect keyring size so I bought some keyring fobs and thats what they are. As I now need to move into actually trying to sell things I figured I might as well make a few more in some different colours. After a few hours work and many cups of tea you can see the end result, and that I think I may have got a little carried away

I did spend a bit too much time on these little fellows though, and It meant I have not had much time to make any larger plush this weekend but I have some evenings in the week to do that. Also, today I baked! Orange and Ginger cookies, they are so yummy and still soft in the middle. Now I just have to try and moderate myself to one at a time which is much easier said than done!

And the verdict…

Well a big thank you to everyone, especially Alys and Orlando for the weekend, I did actually manage to make some sales which I think is fab!  Here you can see a pic of all the plush monsters in their photo shoot before they went off to sale. Don’t they all look gorgeous! My fave is definitely Booberella in the yellow down the front.

The purchased monsters definitely favoured around the cat like ones. Although this is lovely as I love them all, I do wish some of the more unique ones were more popular. Betty as every was well loved though, who can resist her fluffyness!

So now I need to move on and make more. Obviously I will make new versions of the sold ones and will prob make some of the popular ones in a variety of colours  to appeal to a wider audience. I also decided that I needed a smaller monster range in the ‘I love those, but I’m not sure I want to spend that much’ market. This, the fact I love the colours and shape of Booberella and that my new handbag needed some brightening up have all inspired me to make the first experiment into plush monster keyrings.

I do absolutely love her,  she is appox 3 inch square, and I can’t wait to perade her around on my handbag tomorrow .  She needs a little working on, as you can see her claw on one side has got sewn up which I need to try and avoid. Also, I think that next time I will embroider the face on. It is nice to be able to machine it on, but I am not a fan of the X eyes, they are not really cute enough and it is hard to machine sew anything else on such a small scale.

Well, I will be back soon with some more updates. Alys may be taking the monsters to a craft fair at the weekend so we will see how that goes as well. Also Harry Potter on Weds! I can’t wait

I dropped my shop off :)

I’m a little excited now as I have now dropped all my Monster Magic items off for the Open Studio on Sunday. I can’t wait to see how it goes and to go and view them all on sale.  I am also looking forward to viewing the other items that will also be on offer there.

I would love to stick a picture on here of what will be there but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone that may be in attendance.

Lets hope it all goes well.

Hello 2009!

Hi all, sorry for being missing from cyberspace for some time. I regret that most of my time lately has been spent playing computer games instead of crafting and I haven’t had much in the way of inspiration. I have also been enjoying the summer and have turned my hand to gardening! I think I am getting a little obsessed by it now ,who would have thought.

Now, my wonderful friend Alys Power, who makes fabulous jewellery, is going to be having an open studioin her home with some guest crafters and so I decided what better way  to leap into the selling world than in the good hands of a good friend. I started off thinking ‘not enough time’ just make anything out of what you have in the house, but after doing that for a couple of days it fully gave me my inspiration back for making monsters!

So above is a full range of catnip monsters, they are small and cute but I have to admit I don’t love them as much as I do my proper monsters! There are currently a few new Monsters in the making and I will update with a pic of these soon, I plan to have a photo shoot with them, so we will who has the biggest ego! I have definitely progressed though now, and wherever possible, I am sewing the monsters on the machine instead of by hand. They may not be 100% perfect but they are filled with charm.

So for now I have best stop typing and start sewing and I promise to blog my new monsters soon. I will also update the shop after the open studio on Sunday 12th July so I know what I have left.

Craft room is pretty much complete!

                 

My craft room is pretty much completed now after Chris wonderfully put my final shelves and hooks up for me! I love it so much, it is exactly as I pictured it in my head and I now just love to go in there and sit down and look around.

The only things left are to change the desk to white, which will involve some laborious sanding and to get a chair in there, for which I am going to knit a throw for. I also have a tele coming from my grandad so soon I will have no reason to leave (well apart from to make cups of tea of course).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also finished the knitted item i was making, so once i have completed one more thing and actually seen my friend to give them as a gift I can blog away about them.

Gifts for me and gifts for others

Last week I got another lovely parcel from Japan, some fabulous natural linen fabric with bright blue printed Elephants. I love this fabric and it is so lovely to just look at but as much as I love looking at these things, I actually bought the fabric for an idea I have in mind for one of my xmas gifts, which obviously means I can’t blog all about it!

I was also so pleased when I opened the package and the sender had included these so sweet hello kitty note papers as a little gift. The little touched make it all that extra special.

I also have one other thing to blog about, that obviously, after our little get together the other evening I have a knitting project on the go! It is going quite slowly as it is mostly being created in my lunch hours at work but its coming along and is not going to be a big project.

Here is a picture of where I am up too to give an idea, however again, this is to be a surprise gift so I cant really blog what it is yet! All I will say is that it is a gift for my good friends soon to be born child.

And that’s it for the minute, mummydaddy are on their way round with my grandad so I best take my leave.

Old Friends

Shhhh, I bought knitting goods!

I am getting a little excited now, I am off to visit old friends this evening for cups of tea, cakes and, oh yes, knitting!

Its amazing how such a little thing can get me completely obsessed again!